 "Promises and sops: Political parties woo economically sound Karnataka")
Karnataka did well economically under two parties, Janata Dal (Secular) and Bharatiya Janata Party, in the last five years. The state has had four chief ministers, three of the BJP and one of the JD (S), after elections in May 2018. BJP’s B S Yediyurappa ruled for only six days and he was reinstated again after his successor, JD (S) leader H D Kumaraswamy, lasted for over 14 months in power. Yediyurappa resigned on July 28, 2021 and since then Basavaraj Bommai of the BJP has been CM.
Karnataka's economy, in the recent past, has grown a bit higher than the national average and when gross domestic product (GDP) fell due to the first wave of Covid-19 in 2020-21, the rate of contraction in the state was much smaller than the all-India figures. Even when national economic growth slowed down prior to 2020-21, the state held on to its growth rate of the previous year. While the GDP growth at the national level fell from 6.5 per cent in 2018-19 to 3.9 per cent in 2019-20, the state's economy expanded by 6.2 per cent in both years.
Karnataka's per capita income has been far behind Delhi and Sikkim, but it was among the four top ranking states in terms of per capita income in five years. In 2021-22, its per capita income at Rs 278,786 was the third highest in the country. It was 87 per cent higher than the national average of 148,424. However, it was way down (41 per cent) than Sikkim's Rs 472,543 and (31 per cent) than Delhi's Rs 401,982.
Karnataka topped Maharashtra in terms of drawing the highest foreign direct investment (FDI) in 2021-22. It drew $22.07 billion of FDI that year, accounting for 37.5 per cent of total FDI that India got ($58.77 billion). Maharashtra was behind at $15.4 billion. However, Karnataka could not sustain the pace in the first nine months of 2022-23. Maharashtra again emerged as the top ranking state in terms of FDI, attracting $10.8 billion, followed by Karnataka at $8.8 billion.
Karnataka’s unemployment rate has been lower than the national average. The rate stood at 3.2 per cent in 2021-22 against 4.1 at the national level in 2021-22. The trend has been the same since 2018-19. However, the periodic labour force survey (PLFS), from which data is compiled, did not bring out disguised unemployment.
The state’s retail price inflation rate also closely matches with the national average, but the former was a bit lower than the latter in recent months. While at 6.7 per cent, the national inflation rate stood above the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI’s) upper tolerance level of 6 per cent in 2022-23, it was a bit lower at 5.5 per cent in the state.